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Chipekwe
, , , |Reported = 1910 (publication) |Researchers = Bernard Heuvelmans}} The chipekwe (Bemba: "monster") is a lake monster reported from , the , , and . It has similarities with both the living dinosaurs (especially "ceratopsians" like the emela-ntouka) and water lions also reported from Central Africa, and has been equated with both. First described in the 1910's, it was among the first of Central Africa's supposed living dinosaurs to reach European ears. Etymology "Chipekwe" is a Bemba term used to refer to any dangerous animal, as well as the giant tigerfish (Hydrocynus goliath): its closest English equivalent would be "monster". This makes the chipekwe a difficult cryptid to investigate, as the name may be applied to several different known and unknown animals, the characteristics of which are inevitably given to a single cryptid, leading to apparent discrepancies. Description There are few physical descriptions of the chipekwe, as it is often said to spend almost all of its time in the water, unseen. It was supposed to be smaller than a hippopotamus, though some accounts have it larger than an elephant. The Aushi hunters who claimed to have killed one reportedly described it as having a smooth, dark, hairless body and a single smooth, white ivory horn or tusk projecting from its head. However, this account had already been "passed along" twice before its publication, and other eyewitnesses make no mention of a horn. A 1954 eyewitness described it as having a long neck and a small head, and a report from the 1920's described it as having shaggy fur, paddled limbs, and sabre-teeth. Given that "chipekwe" is simply the Bemba equivalent of "monster," Jean-Jacques Barloy feels that the shaggy sabre-toothed animal is not the same cryptid as the smooth-skinned horned animal. The chipekwe is said to dwell in the lakes and swamps of southern Central Africa, very rarely or never leaving the water. It is aggressive and will kill and eat hippopotamuses and rhinoceroses, sometimes by tearing their throats out. It will also capsize canoes and kill people. Attestations Reports of the chipekwe first reached European ears in the earliest years of the 20th Century. Joseph Menges was the first to hear stories of the animal, and some years later, Karl Hagenbeck also collected reports from one of his own travellers (presumably Schomburgk, as mentioned below) and an English big game hunter, who both heard stories of the monster. Hagenbeck thought the animal was a living dinosaur like Brontosaurus. In 1907, explorer Hans Schomburgk visited the lake, by then a part of Northern Rhodesia (now ), and noted the rarity of hippopotamuses despite an ideal habitat. The locals told him that this was because the lake was home to a mysterious animal which was smaller than a hippopotamus, but which preyed on them. They claimed that it never left the water, so they could not provide him with a description if its tracks. He initially disbelieved the story, until Hagenbeck told him that others had reported the animal.Schomburgk, Hans (1910) Wild und Wilde im Herzen Afrikas - Zwölf Jahre Jagd- und Forschungsreisen Hagenbeck's reports caused quite a stir in Europe, provoking several expeditions in search of the African "Brontosaurus", as well as a number of hoaxes. Hagenbeck himself sent an expedition to Lake Bangweulu, which had to turn back due to malaria. Physical evidence Artifacts According to Joseph Menges, numerous Bushman paintings of the chipekwe exist.Hagenbeck, Karl (1909) Beasts and Men Sightings Undated Lake Bangweulu, an immense marshy lake five thousand kilometres square, dotted with small constellations of islands, was discovered by Livingstone in 1868, and sixty years later, it was still the subject of dispute over whether it was a true lake or simply a flooded depression. The region was rarely visited at the time, even by the Zanzibari Arab slavers. A tradition of the Aushi people tells of a chipekwe hunt in the Luapula River. Joseph E. Hughes was told the story in the early Twentieth Century by the son of the Waushi Paramount Chief, whose own grandfather remembered the event. All the best hunters of the tribe spent nearly a whole day spearing the animal to death with their "viwingo" harpoons, and afterwards described it as having a smooth dark body without bristles, and a single smooth, polished, white ivory horn upon its head or snout. In the earliest days of British administration of the region, Robert Young was exploring Lake Young in Chinsali when took a shot at a duck-like object in some floating sudd. The animal dived and disappeared, leaving a wake like a screw steamer. Also during Young's tenure, a party of locals entered Lake Young on a hippopotamus-hunting trip, but their canoes were capsized and the men supposedly killed. The women and children on the shore saw the incident, and later claimed that the "Guardian Spirit of the Lake" had objected to the hunting and had destroyed the party in its anger. The women and children returned home alone, and for some time afterwards, no canoes were to be seen on Lake Young. Retired magistrate H. Croad claimed that one night, whilst he was camped by a small but very deep lake, he heard a tremendous splashing during the night, and rose the next morning to find unidentifiable tracks on the lake's shore. 1906 Another early European who did penetrate the region was R. M. Green, who built a hermitage at Lulimala in 1906. According to Green, locals reported to him that a hippopotamus had been killed, its throat torn out, by a chipekwe in the Lukula River. Hughes, Joseph E. (1933) Eighteen Years on Lake Bangweulu 1928 E. B. H. Goodall and F. B. Macrae were given an account of an animal referred to as the chipekwe by a Chiwemba-speaking man who claimed to have seen the animal several times in the low marshes around around Lake Bangweulu, including one incident from 1928 in which he saw two or three of them. He described the animal as a little larger than a hippopotamus, with shaggy hair, paddles rather than feet, and two large downward-pointing fangs. He also reported that the animals were known to kill hippopotamuses.Macrae, F. B. "More African Mysteries," National Review 111 (December 1938) 1954 Alan Brignall claimed that, in May 1954, he saw a small head atop a long neck rise up out of the water of Lake Bangweulu, about twenty-five yards from the shore. He described the head as having a distinct brow, a blunt nose, and a visible jawline. The figure swayed from side to side for a few seconds, then sank down vertically into the water and disappeared. Theories Chalicothere Captain William Hichens suggested that the chipekwe could be a living chalicothere. However, chalicotheres are believed to have been terrestrial browsers, not amphibious predators, and very few of their physical attributes conform to the description of the chipekwe. Confirmed hoaxes 1932 " photograph of the chipekwe.]] In 1932, Franz W. Grobler reported he had seen a photo of a chipekwe standing on the back of a hippo that it had killed in Lago Dilolo, Angola. However, the photo was the now-infamous "Kasai rex" image, a crude hoax by someone who superimposed a Komodo dragon onto the photo of a dead hippopotamus. It was based on a report by J. C. Johanson, who on 16 February 1932, allegedly took a photograph of a 38-foot-long lizardlike monster in the Kasai Valley, near what is now the border of and the . Similar cryptids Do you think the exists? If so, what do you think the is? Myth, folklore, hoax, or otherwise made-up Mistaken identity Living dinosaur Living sabre-toothed cat Unknown aquatic rhinoceros Living chalicothere *The dingonek *The emela-ntouka *Water lions Notes and references Category:Cryptids Category:Africa Category:Angola Category:Democratic Republic of the Congo Category:Tanzania Category:Zambia Category:Lake monsters Category:River & lake monsters of the Congo system Category:Horned reptiles Category:Long-necked reptiles Category:Theory: Mistaken identity Category:Theory: Lazarus taxon - Dinosaur Category:Theory: Living fossil - Sabre toothed cat Category:Theory: Living fossil - Chalicothere Category:Theory: New species Category:No recent sightings